BREAKFAST IN SCHOOLS PLAN FACES DELAY

About:

• The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education has recommended that all government schools start providing free breakfast in the coming academic year as part of an expansion of the mid-day meal scheme envisaged by the National Education Policy.
• However, Education Ministry officials say a severe funding crunch is likely to delay the initiative.

Fund crunch:

• Free breakfasts would involve an additional budget of ?4,000 crore, according to senior officials, but the School Education Department has seen a budget cut of almost ?5,000 crore this year.
• In its submission to the panel, the Department said it had proposed two new components to the mid-day meal scheme during 2021-22 — an expansion of coverage from the current Class 1-8 students to include pre-primary students as well, and the provision of breakfast.
• The Department in its written submission also informed that a number of States have started providing breakfast to the students in the mid-day meal scheme.
• The Committee recommends that under the schemes all schools should start providing breakfast [for] the students in the next academic session as envisaged in NEP, 2020.

 Falling short:

• The Centre’s current expenditure on the scheme is about ?11,000 crore for 11.8 crore students.
• It is hoping to start providing breakfast from April when the new session starts, but we estimate it will cost us another ?4,000 crore.
• There have been major budget cuts, so the plan has been delayed by several months now.
• The School Education Department saw an 8% cut in allocation from the 2020-21 budget estimate of ?59,845 crore to ?54,873 crore in the coming year.
• The Department’s revised estimates for last year were lower as schools were shut to prevent COVID-19 spread for more than nine months, but the mid-day meal scheme was one of the few to see expenditure rise during the pandemic.
• Students were given dry ration or DBT [that is, a cash allowance] in lieu of mid-day meals. Plus, the scheme remained open through the summer holidays as well. So our expenditure was higher than usual.
• The Central allocation for the meals had a budget estimate of ?11,000 crore in 2020-21, and a revised estimate of ?12,900 crore.
• However, the 2020-21 budget estimate was slashed back down to ?11,500 crore, which is insufficient to provide breakfast, let alone expand coverage to include younger children.
• Officials say depending on the economic situation and the Centre’s revenue position, the proposal could be re-examined later in the year.
• The States’ finances may also come into play, as the Centre bears the entire cost of foodgrains, but shares the cost of food preparation and distribution with them.

SOURCE: PIB